<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD JATS (Z39.96) Journal Publishing DTD v1.2d1 20170631//EN" "JATS-journalpublishing1.dtd">
<article xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" dtd-version="1.0" article-type="community-medicine" lang="en">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">JOHS</journal-id>
<journal-id journal-id-type="nlm-ta">Journ of Health Scien</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Journal of HealthCare Sciences</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="pubmed">Journ of Health Scien</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="ppub">2231-2196</issn>
<issn pub-type="opub">0975-5241</issn>
<publisher>
<publisher-name>Radiance Research Academy</publisher-name>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">273</article-id>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">http://dx.doi.org/10.52533/JOHS.2024.40702</article-id>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi-url"/>
<article-categories>
<subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
<subject>Community Medicine</subject>
</subj-group>
</article-categories>
<title-group>
<article-title>Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice toward the Use of Antibiotics without Prescription Among Citizens of Makkah City, Saudi Arabia
</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Hariri</surname>
<given-names>Raghad Majed</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Melebari</surname>
<given-names>Khulood Waleed</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Alqahtani</surname>
<given-names>Aljoharah Abdullah</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Shaikh</surname>
<given-names>Bushra Ahmed</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Kutbi</surname>
<given-names>Rasha Ibrahim</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Beheiry</surname>
<given-names>Deema Hani</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Shatla</surname>
<given-names>Mokhtar Mahfouz</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
</contrib-group>
<pub-date pub-type="ppub">
<day>14</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2024</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>4</volume>
<issue>7</issue>
<fpage>205</fpage>
<lpage>214</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>This article is copyright of Popeye Publishing, 2009</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2009</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">
<license-p>This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You may share and adapt the material, but must give appropriate credit to the source, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made.</license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<abstract>
<p>Background: Misuse of antibiotics, including overuse, improper dosages, and insufficient treatment regimens, is a global health concern that exacerbates antibiotic resistance. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning the use of antibiotics without a prescription among residents of Makkah City, Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the study sought to identify the sources of antibiotics, reasons for their usage, and factors contributing to inappropriate patterns of antibiotic use within the community.
Methods: The current study adopts a survey based cross-sectional design. Data were collected via an online questionnaire distributed to the general population of Makkah City, Saudi Arabia. The inclusion criteria included the residents of Makkah City, aged 18 and above, and both genders.
Results: A total of 398 responses fulfilling the inclusion criteria were collected. The participants’ ages ranged from 18 to more than 50 years old, 60.8% of whom were females and 39.2% were males, with the majority of them (91.5%) being Saudi. The most reported reasons for antibiotic use were sore throat (74.9%), followed by fever (49%) and gastroenteritis (40.5%). Among the participants, the most commonly recognized adverse events associated with antibiotic use included antibiotic resistance (63.3%), allergy (46.5%), and rash (32.7%). The primary source of antibiotics for the majority of participants (78.6%) was a prescription from a physician, followed by previous personal experience (10.3%) and obtaining them from a pharmacist (6.3%). Approximately 56% of the participants reported having a full doctor’s appointment before using antibiotics, while 26.1% considered having adequate information about the drug, and symptoms that did not require a doctor’s consultation (16.8%) were deemed sufficient reasons to self-medicate using antibiotics. Overall, 72.1% of participants had a poor knowledge level regarding antibiotic use, while 33.6% of the younger participants had an overall good knowledge of the subject.
Conclusion: More than half of the population reported having poor knowledge levels regarding antibiotic use, while also stating that antibiotic resistance was their most known adverse event of antibiotic misuse.
</p>
</abstract>
<kwd-group>
<kwd>Antibiotics</kwd>
<kwd> Resistance</kwd>
<kwd> Saudi Arabia</kwd>
</kwd-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
</article>